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In an age where we can put WiFi into a plastic bunny that wiggles its ears in response to commands over the Internet, why not stick the same wireless networking into a thermostat that allows remote monitoring and schedule changes? It could also shave substantial dollars off your utility bills. Toronto-based Ecobee thinks it has a winning plan for reducing everyone's cost of heating and air conditioning, while giving utilities greater interaction with customers when needed. Ecobee also hopes to reduce the odds your home winds up flooded, frozen, or boiled over.

Ecobee marketing and sales head Jessica Dolmer told Ars that the thermostat was designed to make it easier for average individuals to better manage their energy usage, which her firm believes leads quickly to reduced energy expense. A poorly programmed or nonprogrammed thermostat causes waste by having heating and cooling running for longer than desired or necessary.

The Ecobee thermostat has a touchscreen that uses a graphical user interface to guide an owner through establishing settings. Like other programmable thermostats, the Ecobee lets you set a schedule for what the temperature should be when you wake, leave the house during the day, return, and go to sleep. You can also set date and time ranges for vacation settings.

Although I haven't used an Ecobee, the company's site demonstrates the interface quite well. My wife and I recently replaced our furnace and thermostat. Despite getting a middle-of-the-line programmable unit that uses a relatively intelligent screen-based approach, we still struggle to make changes—such as leaving at an unusual time—after a year of use. Ecobee's graphical approach, including a weekly display much like a calendar program, gives Ecobee a leg up before any of its networking features.

The Ecobee WiFi-connected thermostat

The Ecobee connects to a thermostat through a standard HVAC interface, and hooks in to the Internet via a home WiFi network. The thermostat regularly synchronizes its data with a secure Web portal. Once networked, the thermostat can receive alerts, too, from whoever installed the device. Dolmer noted that utilities "are becoming a huge part of what we're doing," far ahead of Ecobee's plans, and that utilities might purchase and install new thermostats in order to both improve conservation and send messages to customers, potentially at little or no cost to the customer.

Previous smart thermostats required a smart grid, an electrical network also capable of passing data. Ecobee goes out of band, using the ubiquity of WiFi to pass data. The system can tie into home meters that track usage, however, providing additional information to consumers. The thermostat can receive and display messages vetted by Ecobee and sent over the Internet to the individually addressable devices. A utility that provided the Ecobee might tell you that there's a period of high power usage and offer you some incentives to reduce power usage at that moment.

Because utilities pay for more power during peak periods—whether they generate that power themselves or buy it on the open market—being able to send an alert to a customer asking them to participate in backing off usage could have a disproportionate effect. Utilities (or installers) won't be able to send messages willy nilly, annoying customers; Ecobee plans to have guidelines and control the communications. "We want to make sure the control is in the hands of the consumer." Ecobee doesn't want to have concern that "we're stepping over boundaries."

The Web portal can be used to make changes to the schedule, but it's also where a customer can add alerts that are sent out when, for instance, the temperature in the house drops below a preset range, or, with an optional water sensor, there's flooding in the basement. Dolmer said, "A lot of people say, I have a vacation in Florida, and my house flooded when I was gone, and there was nothing I could do."

Ecobee has room for an optional flood sensor, as well as an additional sensor, and can be expanded with ZigBee modules. ZigBee is a wireless standard backed by an industry group for home sensors—like door-opening sensors for an alarm system—and other low-bandwidth, low-battery-usage devices. There are widely available home-monitoring systems, often tied in with burglar alarms, that can also work with sump pump failure, flood, and temperature alert sensors. But Ecobee puts this all in one package, coupled with the Web portal.

The company initially thought it would target HVAC installers, of which there are thousands across North America, but found that builders and utilities have already expressed great interest because of the short-term potential to both save energy and monitor savings. "With the building projects that are going in around Toronto, all the condos have to be about 40 percent more efficient than they ever have before," Dolmer said. In Toronto, builders also compete for large-scale projects and have come to Ecobee for an edge in power consumption.

Dolmer told Ars her firm has a larger interest in the ecosystem for smart homes, in which alarm systems, appliances, furnaces, and other components talk with each other, but that they started with a thermostat because "everyone knows what a thermostat is. It's not like we created this box that sits in your house and you don't know what it is."

Ecobee expects to ship its product in quantity before the second quarter of 2009, according to Jessica Dolmer, the firm's marketing and sales head. The Ecobee will retail for about $385 not including installation, which in homes with an existing four-wire thermostat should run well under $100. The company hopes to partner with HVAC installers to have a set price for installation. Ecobee meets various government energy-conservation guidelines, including Energy Star, and qualifies for various utility and government rebates.